A Day for Heroes

Thinking about Phil Dusenberry, BBDO’s creative head for so many years and my former boss. He died last month, too early.

Phil was a great champion of Brands With a Big Heart. He could make advertising that was funny without ridiculing anybody, without mean-spiritedness or the need for a victim. His work was intelligent without being arrogant, in good taste without being bland and accessible to all without being dumbed-down.

One of this year’s big stories has been the public melt-down of Britney Spears.

I have always thought it was the Pepsi campaign featuring a very young Ms. Spears that took her from being a sort of mall rat celebrity to the Big Time and not long thereafter, to the cover of Rolling Stone. The campaign broke in a :90 spot on the Super Bowl – a spot that was directed by Joe Pytka and featured Bob Dole – and presented her as the epitome of American teenager, wholesome, charming, full of life and energy:

It’s typical Dusenberry – very American, wonderfully directed and produced, witty and infectiously memorable. It’s the kind of ad that advertising creative people hate – and it would never win any creative awards at Cannes – but it sold a heck of a lot of Pepsi.

Anyway, some difference from the Britney train wreck you read about today. Poor kid.

Phil also wrote the screenplay to The Natural, maybe the best movie ever made about sports (there haven’t been many). I played basketball in high school and college and I’ve always thought The Natural captured the mythology of sports at both an epic level and a grassroots schoolyard kid-type level.

A lot of literary types got down on the movie for changing the ending from Bernard Malamud’s book. In the book, Roy Hobbs strikes out. His team loses.

In the movie, Hobbs hits a home run. The ball hits a light tower, short-circuiting the lights, which all explode in time to an epic Randy Newman score. As a triumphant but nonchalant Hobbs (played by Robert Redford) circles the bases, his team erupts in an overcranked victory celebration, showered in magical sparks. A cynic would say it’s corny. But play it in a room with former athletes and the tear ducts go into overdrive.

The thing that Phil understood is that regular people want Roy Hobbs to hit a home run. They want to believe that their heroes are heroic, that Roger Clemens isn’t a cheater, that Eli Manning will show up with his mind on the game and not on his investment portfolio, that the Patriots will play fair, that the game is on the up and up.